This invention relates to electrically illuminated crosses designed to be anchored to the ground and elevated for glowing display on hillsides, church lawns and religiously dedicated property and designed for construction in varied heights.
A wide variety of illuminated crosses have been proposed in the prior patent art. Such previously available cross designs, however, have not proven to be completely satisfactory in actual use, when attempted to be utilized as relatively large outdoor displays, due to one or more drawbacks including a lack of suitable structural strength, a failure of emanating satisfactory uniformity of light throughout the cross, being too complicated in basic design entailing undesirably high initial investment costs and maintenance and operating expenditures, and/or not being adapted to be erected and maintained by persons of ordinary skills. Illustrative of such prior art crosses are those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 676,853; 738,601; 1,391,945; 1,524,835; 2,036,616; and 2,427,655.
Applicant himself constructed and utilized previously a prior art illuminated cross that consisted of pairs of vertical and horizontal plates intersecting at notches therein so that the plates formed a t-shaped cross, having front and back surfaces of translucent material, and having semi-circular notches formed in the frame plates between the intersections of the plates, with the entire cross being lit by electric lamps located at the ends of the cross segments. Such a cross satisfied many of the drawbacks of other previous illuminated crosses, but still suffered certain disadvantages including a concentration of light at the ends of the cross and a need to utilize higher rated bulbs to effect illumination, with their concomitant operating expense.
Accordingly, a search has continued in the art for an improved more satisfactory illuminated cross design.